Bashar al-Assad ordered Syria gas attack, says German intel; Obama says US credibility on the line

Updated
Thu 5 Sep 2013, 9:56 AM AEST

Sorry, this video has expired

Video 5:27

President Barack Obama says the world drew a line over chemical weapons, and Syria must be punished.

ABC News

A Hezbollah official said Syrian president Bashar al-Assad ordered a poison gas attack last month and that the organisation considered the move a mistake which showed he was losing his grip, according to German intelligence.

The revelations came as United States president Barack Obama said he was "not interested in repeating the mistakes from the Iraq war" and that US credibility was on the line.

Participants at a confidential meeting of German lawmakers earlier this week said the head of the BND foreign intelligence agency told them it had intercepted a phone call believed to be between a high-ranking member of the Lebanese Shiite militant group and the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

Key points:

Hezbollah official says Assad ordered a poison gas attack last month

Official claims the attack shows Assad losing grip

US government says about 1,400 people died in the attack

Obama insists he will not repeat the mistake of the Iraq war

Obama and other world leaders are enroute to G20 summit

Assad says he will not back down if there is a World War III

Russia does not rule out approving Syria strike

"The BND referred to a phone call they had heard between a Hezbollah official and the Iranian embassy in which he spoke about Mr Assad having ordered the attack," one of the participants said.

In the phone call, the Hezbollah official says Mr Assad's order for the attack was a mistake and that he was losing his nerve, the participants reported the BND briefing as saying.

Both Iran and Hezbollah support the Assad regime.

A BND spokesman declined to comment on the briefing, saying German intelligence speaks only to the government and to parliamentary committees on highly sensitive matters.

A Hezbollah spokesman was not available for comment.

Obama 'not interested in repeating mistakes' from Iraq war

The US government says about 1,400 people, hundreds of them children, died near Damascus on August 21 in what it says was a sarin gas attack by the Syrian government.

Mr Obama is continuing to seek Congressional backing for military action against Mr Assad.

Moscow has suggested Al Qaeda-linked rebels may have carried out the gassing.

Syria will not back down 'even if there is World War III'

Meanwhile, Syria's deputy foreign minister said overnight the regime would not give in to threats of a US-led military strike against the country, even if a third world war erupts.

In an interview with newsagency AFP, Faisal Muqdad said the government had taken "every measure" to counter a potential intervention aimed at punishing the Mr Assad's regime over the suspected poison gas strike and was mobilising its allies.

"The Syrian government will not change position even if there is World War III," he said.

"Syria has taken every measure to retaliate against... an aggression," he added, refusing to provide any clue as to what that might mean.

Mr Muqdad also ridiculed France as an American stooge.

"It's shameful that the French president... says 'if Congress approves, I go to war, otherwise I won't go', as if the French government had no say in the matter," Mr Muqdad said.

Opening a fiery debate on France's reaction to the alleged deadly gas attack, the country's prime minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said it was "undeniable" that the regime had used chemical weapons in the August 21 assault near Damascus.

"To not react would put peace and security in the entire region in danger," Mr Ayrault said.

"What message would we send to other regimes? And I'm thinking here, like you, of Iran and North Korea."

He also said not reacting militarily would "close the door on a political solution" to the conflict.

Mr Ayrault said there was "no question" of France putting troops on the ground in Syria, but that some form of military reaction was essential.

"Our message is clear: using chemical weapons is unacceptable. We want to both punish and dissuade," he said, calling last month's attack "the most massive and terrifying use of chemical weapons at the beginning of this century".

Key Assad politician defects to Turkey

Meanwhile, former Syrian defence minister General Ali Habib, a prominent member of Mr Assad's Alawite sect, has defected and is now in Turkey, a senior member of the opposition Syrian National Coalition told Reuters overnight.

"Ali Habib has managed to escape from the grip of the regime, but this does not mean that he has joined the opposition," Kamal al-Labwani said from Paris.

If his defection is confirmed, Mr Habib would be the highest ranking Alawite figure to break with Mr Assad since the uprising against his rule began in 2011.